How to Manually Upgrade Windows Phone 7.5 to Build 8170 [Tutorial]

byAsif BokharionJanuary 5, 2012

If you are a Windows Phone user then you must be knowing that Microsoft recently released a new build for Windows Phone 7.5 devices. Lucky users must have already received an update notification for the new build but if are one of unlucky one’s then a procedure has be made available by an XDA developer Heathcliff74 which enables you to manually upgraded your Windows Phone devices to the latest build 8170.

However, before we jump over to the procedure it is important to mention here that what has been included in the latest build 8170 released by the Microsoft. Well, There has been a lot of bug fixes in the update buthe important bug which has been fixed in this release is SMS Bug in which specially formatted text message brings your device messaging app into unusable state and ultimately requires a hard reset. In addition to SMS bug fixes, update has brought some other bug fixes as well which includes keyboard disappearance while you’re typing specially when background processes are being updated, location sharing before denying permission.

WARNING

PROCEDURE WE HAVE REFERRED IS ALL AT YOUR OWN RISK. KOOLMOBILE.NET WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE IF IT GETS FAILED OR CAUSED ANY DATA LOSS!!!!!

Data Backup

Download Windows Phone 7 Backup tool hx4700 Killer’s version 1.6 from this official thread. Developer has preferred downloading version 1.6 rather than 1.8.

Setup the Backup tool to reference Zune.exe and the UpdateWP.exe in the extracted Tools-folder.

Create your backup. The backup app will allow you to archive any previous backup. Your phone will restart and go in Download-mode. When the backup is finished, the app will tell you to disconnect. Even though your phone says you still can’t disconnect, you can safely disconnect the phone and it will restart.

Current Version and Languages

You need to update all the installed languages to the new version. If you don’t know exactly which language-packs are currently installed on your device, you can download the attachedVersion and Language by Heathcliff74.xap. When you run it, it will tell you the OS version and show the installed language-packs.

Download

You need to go through the list of CAB’s very carefully. Select all the packages you need and download them:

All the core OS updates from the version you have to the version you want to have.

All the language-updates from the version you have to the version you want to have.

All the new language-updates you want to add from the first version available to the version you want to have.

All the OEM updates for the Brand/Model of your device.

It’s important to have the OS version and the version of all installed languages at the same level, or else your phone may get into an unservicable state (ie. “Walshed phone”). That would mean that it could be possible that you won’t be able to get updates through Zune anymore. For some OS builds there are no new language-packs. For example, if you update to 7.10.7740.16, you need to install the language-packs for 7.10.7720.68, because there were no changes in the UI for 7.10.7740.16. Check those version-numbers!!

Install WP7 Update Tools

First make sure you have Zune 4.8 final (build 4.8.2345.0)

Download the WP7_update_tool.rar and install the UpdateWP package for your platform (x86 or x64). This is version 4.8.2134.0.

Download the WP7 Update Cab Sender.zip from xboxmod and extract it. This also contains a patched version of UpdateWP.exe which will work with Zune 4.8 final.

Install the Updates and Languages

Copy all the CAB files you downloaded to the folder where you extracted xboxmod’s WP7 Update Cab Sender. The CAB’s should be in the same folder as the BAT-file.

Run the batch-file and press ‘S’.

Your device will reboot and start in download-mode.

You’ll see progress on the screen of your desktop, but it may take more than 10 minutes before your WP7 device is starting to show a progress-bar, even for small updates. That’s normal, because the device is scanning for installed packages and performing merges.

When the update is ready, your device will be rebooted again and it will boot Windows Phone with new version and languages.

Tip from Bleh815: If the update progress freezes, it may help to apply the CAB’s in multiple steps, instead of sending all CAB’s at once.

Fix Translation of Camera Settings

When you’re on MANGO and you added new languages, you may find that the camera-settings are incomplete. This is not a problem with the update-process. Actually, the translations of these setting are simply missing from the official update-packages. These settings are also missing when you do the official update through Zune. To fix this, a couple of XDA members manually translated these settings (see this thread). The translated XML files are attached in the file CameraSettingsTranslations.zip. You have to select the XML files that correspond with the language-packs you’ve added. You need to move these files to the \Windows folder on your device. To do this, you can use the programs DiagProvXml and Isolated Storage Explorer. Full instructions for copying the files to the \Windows folder can be found here.